Facebook’s Mobile Phone: To Battle iPhone and Android

The cell phone market is very competitive with numerous companies bringing out new devices in what seems a daily recurrence. Now it seems we are going to have a new player coming to the market as it is claimed Facebook are working on a device.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch is reporting in an article, that a source that has some knowledge of the project is claiming Facebook are working with another company to build the hardware. This is the same thing that all the other big players do.

According to the source when Google first announced they were working on a phone, Facebook started to become concerned with the increasing influence of the Android and iPhone platforms.

They were also worried that the Facebook apps for the platforms would not be enough to stave off the long term competitive threat. Facebook wants more control of the contacts list and other main functions of the device, which it can only manage if it has control of the operating system.

It is alleged that two high level Facebook staff Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos are working on the project, who both have operating system knowledge. Papakipos in particular was leading the Google Chrome OS project until he suddenly left and went to Facebook in June.

If we do ever see a Facebook phone what would it be like? And would it be aimed at the lower end of the cell phone market? We will just have to wait and see.

Tags

They should just go with Android (which allows them to integrate FB contacts into phone contacts, or even take it over).

Don’t make it a Google experience phone either. Just release it with stock Android, and a custom FB app that does more with contacts (much like Google has a better maps program on Android than on iOS). The Google apps are a separate package that are not required, and the FB team can simply disregard these.

This would give FB access to the only app store that has a chance of rivaling Apple’s, without having to make their own OS and app store. They can then set up a secondary tab in the marketplace (or make their own separate marketplace) for apps from Zynga and others.

That’s the beauty of Android. Sure, it can be customized by the user. But, it can also be customzied by the phone manufactuer, and/or the carrier.

Of course, it would be funny seeing a FB post said “posted from Facebook for Facebook Phone.”

asspss

very well said=)

Observer Pundit

FB can try doing that, but I think this would infringe on Google's patents. They would sue the pants off of FB. I find it really hard that FB is trying to pull of this stunt of trying to be a smartphone company.

Steve Naventi

Hi Gary

Want to share Facebook's statement on the rumors of "a Facebook Phone":

"The story is not accurate. Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make all phones and apps more social, not build a phone. Current projects include include everything from an HTML5 version of the site to apps on major platforms to full Connect support with SDKs to deeper integrations with some manufacturers. Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called “Facebook Phone”). The people mentioned in the story are working on these projects. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a "Facebook Phone" (even internally) because that's such an attractive soundbite, but our real strategy is to make everything social and not build one phone or integration."

NotTellinYou

Yep! Once again an example of the further disintergration and fragmentation of the Android platform! Outstanding!